The Neighbor
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: Adrian Crevan was a complicated man who was all but mad as the mad hatter. He had lived many lifetimes, seen much sorrow, pain and horror. Yet his job as a retired reaper remained the same. Time passed and he was forced to change and adapt- but nothing could prepare him for the young woman, the human that he would fall in love with. Undertaker/OC rated M R&R!
1. Chapter 1

Georgia, September 10th-

He spotted her from across the street from the café he sat in, while happily munching on a blueberry muffin and drinking some warm spiced apple cider.

It must have either been because of her clothing or the color of her hair, He decided as he absently watched the human and licked his lips in a peculiarly hungry manner that had absolutely nothing to do with his food. She was wearing black from head to toe and looking delicious, he might add.

Mouth wateringly so. Even more so than the blueberry muffin he'd been dying to get his hands on barely an hour ago. Glancing down at said muffin, his lip curled slightly at the corner in a silent expression of disdain as his stomach clenched in a peculiar way. _Well. I don't want this anymore._ He thought as he practically tossed the muffin over one of his broad shoulders and collected his spiced cider and stood up.

Not even bothering to slouch since something in him was telling him that he needed to look and act as much like himself as 'humanly' possible for when he met the young gem that's sparkle had drawn his ancient attentions. Walking out of the café that he frequented in the early mornings before going home or heading into work (depending on what his schedule was for that day of course).

However since he had just gotten off his shift at the morgue...he was totally free for the rest of the day to do whatever he wished. And right now what he wished- He thought as he crossed the street to get into a nice position on the other side of the road so that he could meet her.

She was bent over at the waist outside of a nice shop, her wide violet eyes glued to the little glass figurine in the window of the flowers and hummingbird, giving him a nice chance to sidle up to her and get a much, much, _much_ closer look at her.

He couldn't really see her face reflected in the glass- not with the large white letters sprawled across it getting in the way of his vision. But he could see her lovely little peepers. She had a most unusual color for a human. He thought as he took a sip of his cider and subtly checked the rest of her out.

Despite her loose black sweater dress top, he could tell that she would have an exquisitely delicately formed body. Petite and slender in al the right places while her clothing was used in part to hide the slightly lusher than normal mounds on her chest.

Making him absently think as he took another drink of cider that his girl must be- or at one time must have been a mother. She had wide hips indicating that she had gone through childbirth at some point. Though he didn't see nor sense any small children near her, sharing her spirit.

So perhaps she had given her offspring up for adoption. It was either that or it had been stillborn.

Which was a somewhat depressing thought to him, but only somewhat.

After all some things were just not meant to be no matter how much a human may try to will it so. And as much as it may sadden him to even think of such a pretty little gem going through so much to get her child to live only to suffer hours upon hours of agony to have it die- He almost reached out a placed a comforting hand on one of her slender shoulders so that he could give it a slight squeeze which in no way had anything to do with the fact that his palm was itching and he suddenly felt the urge to touch her bare skin.

Nope. Nuh-uh. No way sir.

He saw her straighten her spine so that she was standing up to her full height next to him, and caught her face reflected in the glass where this time there was no writing, next to his own reflection and felt his eyes go wide.

Oh. _Oh!_ Well. _This certainly was a surprise_ , He thought as he took in her appearance. He knew that he had dubbed her 'pretty' and 'gem' in his mind but he never in a hundred years would have imagined how right he was. She looked like a little fairy or something!

Minus the annoying glittery wings.

She had a heart shaped face, porcelain white skin, long, silky and touchably soft looking black hair that was tied back in a loose braid with a purple hair clip with those tacky looking extensions attached to them. Apparently, like him, she found that dying her hair a particular color was more trouble than it was worth.

Why the last time he'd dyed his hair- it had supposed to be blue and turned out a gross sea foam greenish blue color that had had him cutting off every strand of his once lovely knee length silver locks.

Of course that had been a good ten or so years ago before he'd moved to Georgia since he had certain issues that couldn't be faced as a reaper.

One of which being that he lived for a very, very, very, _very_ long time and still had many years ahead of him apparently. And maybe that was the problem, he was a retired reaper with far too much time on his hands and while he didn't exactly have an aversion to certain...things.

One of which was taking on human lovers every so often or so.

He had yet to find the one person who would catch his attention so wholly that he would feel the need to be with them at all times. Be affectionate with them at all times- and dear god she was bending over at the waist again, and he found himself tilting his head and body ever so slightly. His eyes tracking her every movement until-

He fell on the side walk behind her with a startled yelp as his hand crushed his cup of cider. Spattering her pants and shoes with it and causing her to jerk and move so that her back was up against the store window, staring down at him with those beautiful wide violet eyes of hers.

He could feel a flush of embarrassment coloring his cheeks as he stared back. And for the first time in his ancient life of dealing with humans, felt at a loss.


	2. Chapter 2

He fell on the side walk behind her with a startled yelp as his hand crushed his cup of cider. Spattering her pants and shoes with it and causing her to jerk and move so that her back was up against the store window, staring down at him with those beautiful wide violet eyes of hers.

He could feel a flush of embarrassment coloring his cheeks as he stared back. And for the first time in his ancient life of dealing with humans, felt at a loss. But he knew that if he didn't do something, and fast, the girl would likely think him a creep trying to pull something on her and kick the crap out of him.

Which he would admit to deserving for checking out her ass. Sort of.

And so, thinking quickly- Adrian flipped himself up off of his back and without breaking eye contact with her, slowly got back to his feet again and then said, "Well I guess what they say is true. Don't step on a crack or you'll fall and break you're back."

She narrowed her eyes at him just a bit and said in a frost tone that positively sent shivers down his spine and did other things to his cock and balls, "I thought the saying was, don't step on a crack or you'll break your mother's back."

Causing Adrian to look horrified for a moment before he stuck his full bottom lip out in a mock pout, making sure that it trembled a bit as he said weakly, "No. Not mummy. Anyone but mummy." She looked at him funny and he inwardly sighed and stopped being a smartass since his humor and wit were getting him nowhere and fast as the girl suddenly asked,

"You were checking out my ass, weren't you?" There was a slight hint of annoyance in her tone that made anything he thought of saying to her next seem like a bloody trap of some kind. In fact, his self preservation instincts were practically screaming at him to ignore the question altogether as he opened and closed his mouth several times before finally settling on a nice firm head shake.

Which in mid shake somehow turned into a not so nice nod earning him a glare from his girl a moment before she sighed and muttered, "Come with me." As she grasped his cider covered wrist and dragged him around the corner of the building so that they were both in an alley between buildings where he found himself being pushed up against one of the brick walls rather roughly and blinked down at her as she brought his sticky hand up to her mouth and began to lick off the cider.

And at the first touch of her tongue against his skin, several things happened all at once.

1) The whole myth about a reaper's heart starting to beat only when they met their true destined mate. Turns out that was true since Adrian's heart began to beat wildly in his chest. Somewhere just behind his ribs.

2) His eyes- His useless for anything but work eyes, suddenly showed him the future. His. Future.

He could see it all from beginning to end. He could see himself with the girl before him now, on his knees, pressing her back against a wall or door, his mouth on her sex. Drinking her sweetness down, devouring her cream. One of her hands tightly fisted in his hair and the other gripping one of his shoulders as she tried to buck her hips in ecstasy.

He could see visions of them together, both in the bedroom and in other places doing other things. But nothing made his inhuman heart beat quite like the vision of her standing in her kitchen/their kitchen? Fixing a pot of tomato soup, wearing a maroon colored sweater that hugged her body to perfection. And he could easily see why.

When she turned her body in the vision, he could easily make out the outline of a slightly basketball sized swollen stomach. And he felt his breath hitch in his throat at how beautiful she looked.

Closing his green gold eyes for a moment, he felt almost overwhelmed by everything that he had just seen when the vision stopped and he then felt a small pair of feminine hands on his ass as he heard his mate say. "You checked out my ass so this is only fair." And had to choke back the urge to laugh hysterically at her words and grab her and pin her against the building at his back and ravish her senseless.

However doing so in the current day and age was considered bad, not to mention it may hurt any and all future endeavors he may plan so that they could get together. However until then...

Those small hands fell away from his ass and he almost let out a pathetic whimper but instead managed to bite the sound back as he slowly opened his eyes and clenched his jaw until he thought he broke two or three of his teeth from the sheer force he put behind it as he watched, from under lowered lashes as his mate walked away from him and disappeared.


	3. Chapter 3

After that Adrian had spent well over an hour trying desperately to get rid of the ach that had taken up root in his cock and balls as he also tried to formulate a plan of some kind to help him and his mate get 'together'. However sadly due to his centuries of not interacting in even the most basic of ways with the feminine sex aside from the ones he slept with from time to time and work.

He had nothing to help him plan out a future with his woman.

Absolutely nothing.

 _Where the hell was Grell when I actually have need him?_ He thought in frustration as he gritted his teeth a little more and worked his hand slowly along the length of his throbbing shaft. He could feel an orgasm building, the strength of it churning in his balls. Causing his body to tremble as a fine sheen of sweat bloomed across his skin as he applied just enough pressure with his hand to finally bring him to completion with a hoarse cry as he used a hand to catch his seed.

Being of an inhuman race and all, leaving one's seed lying about all willy-nilly tended to lead to very bad things. Very bad things indeed.

Besides, he was particular about his bodily fluids and as such he could either choose to wash it from his hand or- Carefully pulling an empty vial that he got from work for specimen collection purposes, he used one of his semi long-ish fingernails to pop the top off of the vial and then used the palm of his hand to pour/scoop his seed into the vial and then placed the lid back on it.

And then let his head fall back against the brick and raised the vial up so that it was eye level with him and smiled to himself as he let an cat like purr rumble deep in his chest. He would be taking this home with him and freezing it for future use.

Who knew. Perhaps the child he'd had a vision of when his mate had been with him came from these little swimmers. He thought almost proudly as he pocketed the vial and then went about putting his clothing to rights so he could leave the alley and go home.

Several moments later, once he was sure his clothing was entirely put to rights and he wouldn't be going anywhere with his fly down and his junk hanging free in the breeze. _Again._ And hopefully not among another group of some truly excitable eighty something year old biddies out for a Friday morning walk on the street.

Because he was so not up to running for the safety of his home just yet.

Not when he still needed a plan of some sort...

Stepping out of the alley, he made a beeline for his motorcycle. Eager to get home before the next frustration bout of arousal hit him, he was almost home free when one of his neighbors- An elderly widower who lived on a private patch of land about half a mile from his own home, called out to him. Stopping him dead in his tracks. His usually useless eyes taking in the man's somewhat haggard appearance along with the shadow of death that clung to him.

Usually an individual persons shadow of death differed from person to person due to various things such as their health at the beginning, the sort of care they got if they were suffering from illness. Disease, or just old age all of which caused it to steadily progress- either that much slower or faster.

Mr. Benson was in his nineties, suffered from a mind ailment and due to how dark the shadow of death was around him- he either had several weeks or perhaps a month left before his time was up. Which was a pity since he liked to visit with the man.

He always had the most fantastic Thai tea and pumpkin spiced cookies waiting for whenever Adrian came over to visit and sit and listen to him tell stories about his one and only grandchild. A one miss Willow Tara Lilian Markus. Age, twenty two years. Former college student, graduate. Artist.

 _Single._ God why did his brain retain such useless information?

Adrian couldn't begin to count how many times the old man had tried to set him up with his granddaughter.

"Mr. Mortician!" The man gasped out as he finally caught up to Adrian and had to grasp his arm as he doubled over wheezing for a moment as Adrian waited for him to catch his breath enough to tell him what had him looking, and seeming so happy and energetic. "Whoo, an old man could keel over just trying to catch up to you." The elder finally said after a moment or so as Adrian cracked a grin at him and waited, _patiently_ , for his friend to get on with it.

"Alright, well...you caught me," Adrian said somewhat awkwardly/affectionately as his friend straightened his old spine, causing it to pop in various places and gave him a huge, _huge_ smile before saying happily.

"She's here!" Adrian knowing of his friend's mind ailment took a moment to scan the street around them, a small frown on his face as he searched for the 'she' that his friend was talking about. Because the last time he'd done something like this, he'd had to pry his friend from the evil clutches of a beautiful, but young street walker that he highly doubted was even of legal age.

Apparently the pretty girl had seen his friend and his Social Security check coming a mile away. Because she had all but tried to con him out of every penny before Adrian had stepped in and separated them, and got Benson's money back.

So naturally, Adrian began feeling just a tad bit wary the moment his friend began saying, "She's here! She's here!" Over and over again in an excited manner that was starting to alarm Adrian a little bit because his friend was becoming just a little bit too excited and such excitement wasn't exactly good for the heart. Even one as healthy as Bensons.

He was about to open his mouth and ask his friend to calm himself and start over (preferably at the beginning) when he heard the soft clicking of feminine heels approaching and turned his head just in time to hear his mate's voice call out, "Grandpa?!"


	4. Chapter 4

Willow had been grabbing some groceries from the grocery store. Nothing big.

Just some stuff here and there to make an old fashioned dinner for herself and her grandfather. And since he had been going on during the entire trip into town about her late grandmother's home made fish fries. Well, she had decided to give him what he wanted.

So after buying all the necessary fish; clams, shrimp, scallops, crawfish, catfish and salmon to cook.

She had then grabbed some stuff for home made sea food salad, cole slaw, onion rings and hushed puppies. Followed by some sauces, tartar, cocktail, honey mustard and the like- before she figured that she had enough stuff for more than two people and then decided to pay for everything and go to find her grandfather.

So after leaving the store and going to look for her grandfather, it took perhaps about ten minutes, but she finally found him. Gripping the arm of the man she had more or less accosted a little while ago.

She remembered him by his short and unusual silver colored hair and his height of six foot two inches. And how he filled out the pair of black denim jeans he was wearing- and dear god why did he have to have such a _delicious_ looking ass? She wondered as she moved closer to see what was going on with her grandpa due to the fact that the younger man's expression was beginning to take on a slightly alarmed look.

"Grandpa?!" Causing the unknown man to look in the direction of her voice, his expression changing from one of alarm to surprise before he accidentally let her grandfather slip from his grasp...

And took a nice, terrifying tumble side ways where he landed on his side on the side walk as he let out a loud almost girly shriek of horror- that drew the attention of people walking by and witnessing the whole spectacle and quickly clapped a hand to his mouth as he stared at her in wide eyed disbelief behind those long silver bangs of his.

Because he had dropped her grandfather?

Or because he had been caught doing it?

Willow didn't know. But she was damn well going to find out. _After._ She found out whether her grandpa was okay or not. "Grandpa? Are you okay?" She asked in concern as she dropped the bags of food onto the pavement and shot the stranger who had dropped her grandpa a mean look that had the silver haired man visibly cringing.

As she dropped down to her knees beside the elder and began to run her hands over his body in a meticulous manner, carefully searching for any and all broken bones that he may have received from his sudden spill.

But instead of simply telling her that he was okay, her grandpa just laughed and waved her hands away. "Oh, I'm fine dearest. I imagine the only true damage done here today was to my friend." He said, pointing to Adrian who just stood there still with his hand over his mouth- and a _deer-in-the-headlights_ look on his face. "See. Look at the poor man." He reached out and rapped his knuckles on Adrian's leg and giggled as he said. "Frozen stiff... Which is good since I want you to invite him to dinner and he can't run away from us or say no like this. So- go on, invite him to dinner."

"But grandpa we should probably have you checked out-" Willow started to say as she was cut off.

"Stop fretting already. I'm fine. Now invite the nice terrified man to dinner tonight before he regains the ability to speak and move." Her grandfather said somewhat excitedly.

"But grandpa-"

"Willow. Please, do this and make an old man happy. He's a good man. Awkward and not very good at socializing, but a good man nevertheless." Her grandfather said as she sighed. Reading his message loud and clear.

New town. New home. New life.

She would need a few good people watching out for her and helping her when things got rough. And they would, eventually with her grandpa's health deteriorating as it was. So if in one of his few lucid moments he deemed someone good enough for her to take a chance on, who was she to disappoint?

Sighing Willow stood up and moved to help her grandpa up when the stranger surprised her by moving to take the old man's hand and help him up with ease. Only making her want to growl at him like a wild animal out for blood because someone or something had overstepped bounds and once her grandfather was on his feet again he wasted no time whatsoever in getting behind her and pushing her towards his friend.

As much as she loved the man, subtle, was something he wasn't as she sighed again and said in her most robotic tone. "Would you like to come to dinner at grandpa's house this evening?" Hoping that the weird guy would decline and her grandfather would stop pushing her in his direction.

Honestly if he kept it up, she'd be in the man's lap or something trying to think up creative ways to _end_ him.

"Will you be there?" The man's smooth if somewhat breathless sounding baritone pierced her thoughts as he asked her the question. She felt herself flush, and heard her grandpa answer for her.

"She's cooking! We're having an old fashioned fish fry."

She felt the silver haired stranger's eyes on her, his expression peculiar enough to send shivers down her spine as the guy finally asked, "What time do I need to be there?"

"How's four thirty sound?" Her grandpa replied easily, happy things were falling into place with his plan.

"I'll be there with bells on."

"Perfect." She muttered, knowing that she was being ignored for the moment as her grandfather beamed at the man and exchanged a few other details before he happily waved his friend off and took one of the bags of food from her arms.


	5. Chapter 5

A dinner date.

 _I have a dinner date._ _With my mate. And her grandfather, who also just happens to be a dear friend._ Adrian thought in bemusement as he watched his mate and friend walk off with a small, awkward little finger wiggle/wave of his hand. It'd been several hundred years since anyone had bothered to invite him over to dinner at their place.

And with the changing of time and proper decorum- well, he just hadn't been able to keep track of the things found acceptable when invited to dinner at another person's house.

But one thing was for sure, now that he knew who his mate was and that she would be close by, he owed Benson a kiss. A nice, big- hopefully non gay-ish one. The old man was just so...what was the word?

Awesome?

No. That word didn't fit.

Lovely? Well maybe not physically anymore, but he had a damned good heart and now Adrian owed him a kiss for finally introducing his granddaughter to him. He bit his lower lip for a moment as he tried to think of what to do next. He knew that dinner at his friend's place would be no casual affair. After all, the man was old and wasn't terribly likely to put much into his appearance since it would just be him, Adrian and of course Adrian's mate. Willow.

His stomach did this funny little flip flop at the mere thought of his mate's name, causing him to bring his hand up to rub the spot.

Not because it was sore or pained him. But because it sort of tickled and he was about to bust out laughing like he had used to back in the old days when he'd been London's one and only Undertaker. However he knew that if he did so without the benefit of someone telling him a joke or something, he'd look like he'd lost his mind.

And that was the last thing he wanted now that he'd finally found his mate.

But that was neither here nor there.

He had work to do to make himself presentable for this evenings affair and he wouldn't accept failure as an option. He needed a nice new shirt (one that didn't have weird pictures or sayings on it from his favorite TV shows and movies). Maybe something that for once wasn't black. A tie (just in case). And at home he could pull out his best pair of pants and polish his nicest pair of calf length skull and cross bone leather boots.

Maybe buy a few bottles of wine to go with dinner and get his mate tipsy...and see if she wanted to walk him home where he would corner her and maybe if he was lucky he'd get her naked.

No. Wait.

Scratch that idea- he wanted her to like him enough to come to him whenever she needed help and stuff. Not _loathe_ him enough to run in the opposite direction where some faceless guy that he already hated lay in wait to snatch her up and away from him.

Why the thought alone made his ancient blood boil in his veins. But since he wasn't going to allow such a thing to happen, he shifted his mind back to his somewhat short, detailed plan for dinner this evening.

Shirt, tie, wine.

 _Right._ Where was the best place to get all of those things? He wondered before biting his lower lip again to restrain his mirth when he realized that here he was in a town he'd lived in for the past five years...And he still hadn't figured out all the small minute details that a local townie _should_ know.

"I'm pathetic." He muttered to himself under his breath before realizing that he had left out something in his plans. Something for his mate. A small gift of his affections.

But what?

What did modern women like to receive from males?

Again, he would have _killed_ to have Grell at his beck and call for advice on this one since he was pretty sure that anything he got for Willow would only cause him to dig his own grave.


	6. Chapter 6

Later that evening-

Adrian stepped out of the humid bathroom in nothing but his bare, scarred skin after bathing and moved to stand in front of the small oval mirror that he kept on his dresser so that he could take in his appearance.

One side of his long bangs were being held back away from his face by a cool looking skull and crossbones hair clip that he had bought for occasions such as actually needing to see through the thick curtain of hair he still had. So that he could work mostly. After all- one small slip of a scalpel in his line of work and you could land yourself right next to the bodies you worked on.

Or at least you could if you were human.

As it was so far he'd landed himself in the hospital several times by being dumb enough to slip up and almost cut something off before he noticed that the blade he was handling wasn't supposed to be cutting into him. Which is how he had gotten several of the nifty new scars along his fingers, palms, and arms.

But all that aside... He studied his appearance carefully, taking note of various vicious looking wounds that had left their marks on him over the centuries. Back when he had still been young, and working as a reaper. Each one had been bone deep or even deeper. Each one had been expected to kill him.

And every time, each one had failed.

Running a hand along the semi smooth skin of his chest, he closed his eyes and sighed at the pleasant thrill that went through him and moved his hand lower to trace one of the more prominent scars along his abdomen before opening his eyes again and blinking at his reflection.

Today would prove to be much more challenging than it should be for one of his ilk.

Today he had met his destined mate, saw visions of their future and their future child, dropped said mate's elderly/dying grandfather onto the ground (accidentally of course) and been invited to dinner by said mate.

So naturally after going and asking someone he trusted about where he could find a shirt, tie, wine and possible gift for his mate. Which might have gone much smoother than it had if he hadn't have gotten lost in the local mall's main store looking for a decent shirt and tie and then couldn't find the dressing room- so he wound up stripping right there in the store. Which had led to the local cops being called.

He sighed.

Thank god the local law enforcement knew him enough to know that he wasn't some sort of freak. Well...not totally anyways.

And after straightening out the whole why-he-was-partially-naked debacle, one of the officers, a guy named Christopher Manning had pointed him in the right direction to buy some wine and get a gift for Willow. And then the guy had laughingly slapped him on the shoulder and told him not to start drinking until night fall. That way he wouldn't be on duty and thus wouldn't have to cart Adrian's drunk ass off to jail like last time.

That had been fun.

He didn't even remember getting ahold of the matches that had burnt part of the station down- but he did sort of recall panicking half way through setting fire to the place and trying to pee the flames out before he got caught.

So he had bought his nice shirt, and a two hundred dollar lavender silk tie to match Willows eyes. Not really caring if it made him look sort of 'Grell-ish' once he had it on. And after looking at the clock next to his bed, nodded to himself for waking up early so that he could figure out what sort of gift to give Willow since he still had absolutely _no idea_ what the hell he was doing as he pulled on a pair of clean jeans and then once they were in place.

He moved across the room, hastily grabbing the large bag he'd placed just inside the door of his bedroom next to the three bags of wine and wine coolers, he then took several moments to empty the contents onto his bed and spread them out a bit and then paused wondering if it was weird that he sort of felt like the dragon from the Hobbit movie right then with such gems laid out across his sleeping spot.

He feared that he may have gone overboard with trying to find something pleasing to Willow's delicate sensibilities. He'd bought everything from sterling silver, to steel, to different colored gold with diamonds. Antique pieces, novelty pieces, artisan pieces- pearls, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, garnets, opals- necklaces, bracelets, earrings...

And then there were the other things he'd gotten for her. The simple things.

Like the snow white colored teddy bear holding a pink velvet hear that said, 'I love you this much!' Of course he knew that handing that to her after just meeting her earlier today would probably creep her out to the extreme. Even if he lied to her and simply told her it was a joke just so that she'd take it without a fuss.

Still...he can't really say that he wasn't tempted just the same.

And then there were some pretty crystal hair clips that semi matched the one that he was using. It was a silver colored skull with a cross bones and the eyes were a glittery blood red.

Frankly he liked them. They were cute. But he didn't have a real good feel for Willow's personality just yet to hand her something like this. So he'd save it for maybe something like...Halloween since it was the only 'holiday' that he truly enjoyed.

What with the costumes, the candy, trick-or-treating and such. Why he was more in his element then than any other time of the year! And he had to admit. Willow would make a damn hot succubus or adorable vampire with the clips in her hair. So yeah, he'd hang onto them for a bit longer.

Now what to bring? What to bring? He wondered to himself for- he didn't know how long since he lost track of time because when he next looked at the clock, and blinked upon realizing that he just barely had twenty minutes to finish getting ready and leave for Benson's place. He thought, _Screw it._

He'd take everything and let Benson help him sort his shit out.


End file.
